No Story Too Small has issued a New Year’s Challenge: “Have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor.”

His baptism has not been located; he married Anne Roberts on 18 April 1821 in Llanfairfechan.

He died on Whitsun Monday 1834, a legal holiday in Wales (the day after Whitsunday, the Christian festival of Pentacost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s disciples).

David was buried on 22 May 1834 at about the age of 47.

Very little is known of his life. He was a farmer and resided in a home called Llwynysgolog, a farm of about 80 acres. He had a will dated 22 April 1834 (about a month prior to his death) which names his four children and assigns their guardians; one being his brother, William Roberts of a home called Llwydfaen in Llanbedr. The full document can be seen here: probate David Roberts 1835

The inventory list gives us a small glimpse of his life and an idea of what type of farm he may have run. Value of his assets were £386 (or about $17,765 in 2014 buying power).

A True and Perfect Inventory of the Personal Estate Viz the Goods Chattels Household Furniture be of David Roberts of Llwynysgolog in the Parish of Llanfair fechan in the County of Caernarvon Farmer lately Deceased.

Viz 6 Milk Cows 31.0.0

31.0.0

1 Bull

4.0.0

2 Oxen 3 years old at 5 a head

10.0.0

7 Runts 2 years old at 4 a head

20.0.0

5 Yearlings at 2 10 a head

12.10.0

4 Calves at 15/ ahead

3.0.0

250 Small sheep at 10/ ahead

125.0.0

2 Team Horses

13.10.0

6 Mountain Ponies

25.0.0

7 Store Pigs at 25/6

8.17.0

1 Cow and Litter

3.6.0

Old Carts, Ploughs, Harrows, Gears and all implements of Husbandry

20.5.0

Wheat in Granary and unthreshed

26.0.0

Barley in Granary and unthreshed

38.0.0

Oats in Granary

4.11.0

Winnow Machine

4.0.0

Household Furniture including his clothes

30.0.0

£386.13.0

NB This Inventory Value by David Evans Llwynysgolog [his widow’s second husband, who she married 9 May 1835] and Thomas Griffin Ty’n Llwyfan on this 11 day of June 1834

Definitions:
(1) Runts – small ox or cow, especially one of various Scottish Highland or Welsh breeds.
(2) Yearlings – an animal (usually a horse) that is between one and two years old.
(3) Store Pig – a small pig that has not yet been weened, to be fattened up for market.
(4) Harrow – an agricultural machine used for deeper tillage. Harrowing is often carried out on fields to follow the rough finish left by ploughing operations to break up clods (lumps of soil) and to provide a finer finish.
(5) Unthreshed – not yet threshed.
(6) Threshed – to separate the grain or seed by some mechanical means as by beating with a flail or the action of a machine.
(7) Husbandry – the care, cultivation, and breeding of crops and animals.
(8) Winnow Machine – an agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from chaff (the dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds). It is also used to remove weevils or other pests from stored grain.